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This article presents comparisons among the five ground-motion models described in other articles within this special issue, in terms of data selection criteria, characteristics of the models and predicted peak ground and response spectral accelerations. Comparisons are also made with predictions from the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) models to which the models presented here have similarities (e.g. a common master database has been used) but also differences (e.g. some models in this issue are nonparametric). As a result of the differing data selection criteria and derivation techniques the predicted median ground motions show considerable differences (up to a factor of two for certain scenarios), particularly for magnitudes and distances close to or beyond the range of the available observations. The predicted influence of style-of-faulting shows much variation among models whereas site amplification factors are more similar, with peak amplification at around 1s. These differences are greater than those among predictions from the NGA models. The models for aleatory variability (sigma), however, are similar and suggest that ground-motion variability from this region is slightly higher than that predicted by the NGA models, based primarily on data from California and Taiwan.
Following work is embedded in the multidisciplinary study DESERT (DEad SEa Rift Transect) that has been carried out in the Middle East since the beginning of the year 2000. It focuses on the structure of the southern Dead Sea Transform (DST), the transform plate boundary between Africa (Sinai) and the Arabian microplate. The left-lateral displacement along this major active strike-slip fault amounts to more than 100 km since Miocene times. The DESERT near-vertical seismic reflection (NVR) experiment crossed the DST in the Arava Valley between Red Sea and Dead Sea, where its main fault is called Arava Fault. The 100 km long profile extends in a NW—SE direction from Sede Boqer/Israel to Ma'an/Jordan and coincides with the central part of a wide-angle seismic refraction/reflection line. Near-vertical seismic reflection studies are powerful tools to study the crustal architecture down to the crust/mantle boundary. Although they cannot directly image steeply dipping fault zones, they can give indirect evidence for transform motion by offset reflectors or an abrupt change in reflectivity pattern. Since no seismic reflection profile had crossed the DST before DESERT, important aspects of this transform plate boundary and related crustal structures were not known. Thus this study aimed to resolve the DST's manifestation in both the upper and the lower crust. It was to show, whether the DST penetrates into the mantle and whether it is associated with an offset of the crust/mantle boundary, which is observed at other large strike-slip zones. In this work a short description of the seismic reflection method and the various processing steps is followed by a geological interpretation of the seismic data, taking into account relevant information from other studies. Geological investigations in the area of the NVR profile showed, that the Arava Fault can partly be recognized in the field by small scarps in the Neogene sediments, small pressure ridges or rhomb-shaped grabens. A typical fault zone architecture with a fault gauge, fault-related damage zone, and undeformed host rock, that has been reported from other large fault zones, could not be found. Therefore, as a complementary part to the NVR experiment, which was designed to resolve deeper crustal structures, ASTER (Advanced Spacebourne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) satellite images were used to analyze surface deformation and determine neotectonic activity.